Abdullah
should make public the Scomi Group report for scrutiny and verification that
the company in which his son Kamaluddin has interest had not taken
advantage of the special relationship with him as to raise
conflict-of-interest issues

________________
Media Statementby Lim Kit Siang
___________________

(Parliament,
Saturday) :The Prime Minister-cum-Finance
Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has said that he did not mislead
Malaysians over Scomi Group Bhd contracts in his TV3 interview on August 7
and that ‘Latest reports he received on the matter indicated that ‘the
company in which his son Kamaluddin has an interest, did not win local
contracts through special favours but through open tenders”. (New
Straits Times)

Abdullah
said: “I would like to point out that what I had said about the company was
correct. No project was given to Scomi with my knowledge and I have not
personally given any kind of permission to grant favours or, for that
matter, projects (to Scomi)”.

The previous
Saturday, Abdullah had said that he had called for a report from Scomi Group
and that he would apologise to the people if he had inadvertently erred
when he spoke about the Scomi Group during a recent TV3 interview.

Abdullah’s
claim that he did not mislead the people over Scomi in the TV3 interview
does not stand up to close examination.

There are
two issues here. Firstly, what did Abdullah actually say in the TV3
interview – did he say that Kamaluddin and Scomi did not obtain government
tenders or did he qualify it by saying that they did not get government
contracts “through special favours but open tenders”.

It is clear
from the translation of the transcript of Abdullah’s TV3 interview that
he said the former and not the latter, viz:

23.Q: In your capacity
as the Finance Minister, has his (Kamaludin) company obtained government
tenders?

A: No, not at all. To my knowledge, he has not received any. He does not
manage the business and is only the major shareholder and had made a move to
buy a Singapore company with 188 ships to transport coal.

Abdullah’s
answer was very specific and definitive, that Kamaludin and Scomi Group had
not “obtained government tenders”.

On this
first point, Abdullah had misled the people over the Scomi issue. Accepting
his bona fides that he had not intended to mislead Malaysians, the question
that naturally arises is who had misled the Prime Minister “to mislead the
people” on the matter.

Abdullah
raised the second issue when he said yesterday that “No project was given
to Scomi with my knowledge and I have not personally given any kind of
permission to grant favours or, for that matter, projects (to Scomi)”.

As Prime
Minister who is leading an administration which gives importance to
integrity, he should know that under the principle of ministerial
responsibility, no Minister can disclaim responsibility for any decision
taken by the Ministry – regardless of whether the Minister has personal
knowledge or otherwise of the matter.

In the case
in point, as Finance Minister, the plea of ignorance is neither credible nor
acceptable to shirk or avoid responsibility for any decision taken by the
Finance Ministry affecting Kamaluddin and Scomi, whether contracts or
projects.

He cannot
resort to the simple expedient of “washing his hands” whether on the ground
of ignorance or that he had not “personally given any kind of permission to
grant favours or, for that matter, projects” to Kamaluddin and Scomi, so
long as they come within the purview and jurisdiction of the Finance
Ministry.

Abdullah’s
statement yesterday was very self-serving and without credibility. He
should make public the Scomi Group report which was submitted to him two
days ago for parliamentary and public scrutiny and verification that the
company in which his son Kamaluddin has interest had not taken advantage of
the special relationship with him on government contracts as to give rise to
conflict-of-interest issues.

During the
budget debate in Parliament on Monday, I had raised five questions about
Abdullah’s TV3 interview, viz:

Why must
Abdullah ask for a report from Scomi Group when he should be calling for a
full report from his own Government, the Prime Minister’s Department and
the Finance Ministry which together have responsibility for all government
and government-related entities.

Why did
it take the Prime Minister almost one full month to realize that he did
not have proper “information” about Kamaluddin and Scomi’s business
activities involving the government, leading him to make a false statement
to the public in a television interview?

Why must
he learn of this error from a letter from the public when such
information are easily available in the public domain and are in the
possession of the government even before his TV3 interview.

As his
TV3 interview was pre-recorded and not live, why wasn’t he informed of the
mistake by his advisers so that there could be a re-recording of the
interview to prevent the humiliation of the Prime Minister being caught
giving a false answer and being accused of lying in the television
interview, undermining his credibility and authority?

And even
more basic, as he would be answering questions about Kamaluddin’s business
activities vis-à-vis the government, why wasn’t the Prime Minister given a
full and thorough briefing by his advisers and subordinates, and why
didn’t he ask for such a full report?

Abdullah is
not inspiring public confidence that we have a world-class public serive
costing taxpayers RM112.9 billion next year in operating expenditures, with
a million-strong civil service, when it is so incompetent, inept and
irresponsible as to leave the Prime Minister so uninformed and vulnerable
in a very one-sided and domesticated TV interview!

There were
also other inaccurate information which the Prime Minister made in the
interview, as in his defence of the highly controversial multi-million
ringgit loan-and-acquisition of shares of ECM Libra by his son-in-law,Khairy
Jamaluddin and his denial that no Malaysian company was being controlled
by a foreign company, although private hospital operator Pantai Holdings was
at the time controlled by Singapore-based Parkway Holdings Ltd.

Abdullah
should come out with a full and proper explanation of the misinformation and
contradictions which he had made in his TV3 interview on August 7 in order
to restore his credibility and authority.